


Standing For Your Love

by Pey119



Series: STS [11]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan, The Trials of Apollo - Rick Riordan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - No Demigods (Percy Jackson), Complete, F/M, M/M, Married Couple, Series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-18
Updated: 2019-06-18
Packaged: 2020-05-13 20:48:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 11
Words: 4,709
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19258924
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pey119/pseuds/Pey119
Summary: Sequel to Standing Beside Your Love





	1. Prologue

It had been years since Piper had thought about ghosts, even more years since she had seen one. They had moved on, had another kid, built their family in a house that needed the positivity and love. They planted that love deep within the stained blood, used it to try and free the land from the evil clutches.

But even though she thought everything was okay, even though she thought only love was there, she was wrong.

Katie was around seventeen, was the perfect child in the eyes of her parents. All blame and responsibility went to her. Grades were perfect, the teams she was apart of did well. She never had a boyfriend.

During the night, the loneliness hit. The sadness followed it closely.

Maddie was fifteen, with a body that attracted the boys and a low self esteem that kept them. She was never told she was enough, was never told that she was great. In the eyes of her parents, Katie was the good one, the responsible one.

She took what the boys gave her because she didn't have anything else to take.

Little Nikki was five, with dark hair and eyes just as colorful as her mother's. She was the only kid born from the blood of both Piper and Jason, the only kid that was fully both of theirs. Her siblings remained jealous, she thought they hated her.

Love. It was meant to fill the house, meant to nurture the land. But all it did was hide from sight the hate that was boiling up.


	2. Chapter 1

"Breakfast!" Piper leaned against the railing as she called up the stairs. After hearing no movement, she called the word again. It was then when she saw Nikki start to come down the stairs, her hair hanging to the waist of her thin nightgown.

"Momma!" she took each step carefully, her chubby baby feet clinging to each stair. "Can we play outside today?"

Piper picked the girl up when she was close enough. "Hmm... It is a nice day today." She walked to the kitchen, keeping Nikki close. "Doesn't even feel like Fall yet."

"I know why!" Nikki declared as she was set down at the table. "The leaves no fall yet!"

Jason looked over from his plate of eggs he had been eating. "Is that so?"

Nikki nodded. "The leaves aren't on the ground."

"They will be soon enough." Piper set a plate in front of Nikki. "Eat, baby. You need your breakfast."

Jason looked up at his wife, his blue eyes the same as when she had met him for the first time. "Are Maddie and Katie coming?"

Piper shrugged. "I called them twice."

"Maddie is doing makeup." Nikki ate with her hands, ignoring the fork laid out for her. "And Katie...Katie read book, I think. I tried getting them for you but they yelled."

"Why am I not surprised..." Piper huffed as she ruffled Nikki's hair. "I'll be back. Stay where your dad can see you."

"Pipes, I've got to go to work." Jason has already stood up, his bag hanging from his shoulder. "I'm going to be late."

"Five minutes, Jason. I can't take her while she's eating." Piper moved from the room quickly, ascending the nearest staircase. "Girls! You're going to be late for school!"

Katie opened her door with a sudden force of frustration. "I'll be down in a minute, mom. I still have homework to do. I couldn't last night because you made me watch Nikki."

"Who else could have watched her?" Piper sighed. "You still need to get to school on time, Katie. Do it in the car."

Katie rolled her eyes as she disappeared back into her room. "I can skip breakfast for one day, mom."

"Katie, downstairs." Piper moved to Maddie's door and knocked. "Maddie, you too! Breakfast!"

Maddie opened the door with a tube of mascara in hand. "I'll be down in a minute. I woke up late."

Piper looked the girl over. "Change that shirt and then come down."

"Why?" Maddie crossed her arms. "It looks fine."

"I can see more of your chest than is legal, Maddie. Change." Piper ran a hand through her hair. "Come on, imagine if your dad saw that."

Maddie grumbled to herself as she disappeared back into her room, leaving Piper alone in the hallway of the mansion. That mansion, that home...it was soaked in history, soaked in blood.

Yet in her heart, she still believed she could raise her family there.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

That night, Piper had her first round of nightmares in years. And for the first time in years, she thought about Nico di Angelo.

As she slept, she saw his death. She saw the moment his breath left his body.

She saw Will's death, saw his body swing from that noose. She woke up and threw up over the side of the bed, her hands shook and her body threatened to give out. Though she had seen TV, had seen movies, nothing had prepared her for a suicide so real.

It was heartbreaking. It was time-freezing, was raw reality. It was the product of pain and misery so tremendous that it couldn't go anywhere else but through the killing instrument.

She grabbed the rosary off her nightstand, prayed until she was stable enough to get up and clean the mess she had made.

Her bare feet sunk into the carpet as she made her way to one of the closets in the hallway; it itched at her toes, rubbed dirt into her skin. She hadn't vacuumed in a month.

She could feel the way her nightgown fell about her, how it itched at the back of her knees in a teasing gesture. But unlike the movies, there was nothing beautiful about the white cloth. It showed too much thigh for her liking, too much baby fat from having Nikki. In the back, there was a hole right where you would never want one to be.

Piper took the towel from the closet, kept her voice low in the dim light of the hall. "Nico? Will?"

No answer. She moved on to the bathroom to wet the towel, the bright light causing her to blink a few times before turning the sink on. When she did, the dark shadow that appeared beside her almost took her breath away.

When Nico and Will had been there, she had gotten used to things appearing. She had gotten used to ghosts and everything they could do. But now, after years, the shadow sent fear trickling down her spine. She froze up, her hands dropping the towel into the sink.

"Will?"

It didn't move.

"Nico?"

It disappeared.


	3. Chapter 2

"Piper, you didn't see Nico." Jason didn't look up from his laptop. "It's impossible."

"And why's that?" Piper asked, her arms crossed over her flimsy nightgown. She still hadn't changed back, the early hours of the weekend having caused her to stay in bed. "Because he's dead? We've seen a lot of dead people, Jason."

"Because he moved on." he corrected. "All of them did. They can't just visit Heaven and then come back to us."

"And how do you know he went to Heaven?" Piper asked. "How do you know Heaven is even real?"

"Piper, I'm not having this conversation." Jason got up and started to pack his bag. "I have to go to work."

"On a Saturday?"

"Yeah, on a Saturday." he threw his jacket on before doing the same with his shoes. "Who else pays the bills around here?"

Piper stood for a minute in silence before clenching her fists. "Fine, Jason. Whatever. Be your usual sexist self."

"I'm not being sexist, Piper. I'm saying that I have a job and that you don't." Jason walked passed her. "You can't expect me to miss work when I'm the only one bringing money home."

Piper scowled as she followed him to the door. "So you don't believe me about Nico? That's what you're saying?"

"Yeah, that's what I'm saying." Jason slammed the door shut behind him, leaving her to stare at it without another emotion but anger in her heart.

Anger instead of love.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Maddie took Nikki into her arms as she saw the little girl trying to get into the basement. "What are you doing?"

Nikki tried to fight her older sister. "Drawing."

"Nope." Maddie put her back to the basement door. "No more drawing down there."

"Why not?" Nikki demanded, her small lips pressed together.

"Because. You can't draw that stuff." Maddie set her down but made sure to keep the door closed. "Now go play somewhere else."

Nikki clenched her small fists. "Let me down!"

"No." Maddie shook her head. "I shouldn't have introduced you to that."

"Please?!"

"No."

"With sugar on top?"

"Nope."

"Fine." Nikki stared up at her sister. "I'll tell mommy. She won't like it."

Maddie scowled. "Nikki..."

"Yeah?"

"You aren't telling her. You can't. She'll be angry at both of us." Maddie kneeled beside her. "Do you understand why what you drew was bad?"

Nikki shook her head. "All I did was see it in my dreams."

Maddie visibly gulped. "So did I... But it isn't a good thing. They weren't good dreams."

"Why not?" Nikki grabbed Maddie's arm. "You're lying!"

"No, I'm not." Maddie picked her sister up. "Let's go talk about it upstairs. Maybe we can sneak up some cookies and milk."

Nikki clapped her hands. "Chocolate."

Maddie sighed. " _Now_ you act innocent."


	4. Chapter 3

Jason was driving home from work with a trunk full of groceries when he first felt the sensation, when the first strands of fear started moving through him. He could sense something cold, felt his hairs rising on end. In a flash, his hand reached out to make sure the car's air conditioning was off.

It was off, just like the day he had bought the car. It never got that warm anymore.

His phone rang from his pocket, the soft tune filling the car with a normal sense of relief. The air of oddity died away, even the coldness seemed to shrink out the cracked window. When it rang, the phone brought him back to real life and the familiarity of it.

No ghosts. No demons. No fear.

Expecting it to be Piper, he let the phone ring until it eventually died down. He had a lot to deal with right now, a lot at work and a lot in his family. He didn't need her fears about ghosts that were long dead and gone.

"I don't know what she's thinking..." Jason reached out to turn the radio on, his voice having started to fill the silent car. "They're gone. Long gone. It's just us and our kids in that house."

His phone rang again, louder than the country music that fought its way through the static of the old radio. As he finally brought his hand to his pocket, he pulled the phone out and prepared to decline the call. His finger stopped when he saw it was his mother, however, his eyes leaving the road almost too long.

As he put the phone to his ear, he narrowly missed swerving into the ditch. "Hello?"

"Jason." his mother's voice had grown old and fragile. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm driving home." Jason frowned. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"Reyna said to check you," Beryl explained. "She sounded worried."

Jason sighed. "Reyna doesn't know everything about me."

"She's worried. She said to be worried," she replied. "Please, Jason. Just be careful. It must be something supernatural if she knows."

"Reyna doesn't know every ghost and demon," Jason argued. "You probably misheard her."

"Misheard her? She woke me up five times last night!" Beryl argued. "She said a boy named Nico was trouble!"

Jason actually did swerve into the ditch.


	5. Chapter 4

"Are you going to apologize?" Piper asked. She sat across from him at the dining room table, watching as he filled a binder with papers. "Or are you just going to stay silent?"

Jason glanced away from his wife. "I was in the wrong."

"Hell right, you were." Piper clenched her fists. "There's something in this house again. And I'm not fully positive it's Nico."

"My mom said it was him," Jason argued. "She said Reyna said to watch out for him."

"And when do you trust Reyna?"

"She's saved my mom's life before," he responded. "How could I not?"

Piper sighed into her coffee cup. "Then why won't he just talk to us? Why is he even back?"

Jason shrugged. "You guess is as good as mine."

"So what do we do?"

"Wait and see what happens."

"Wait and see what happens?" Piper repeated. "Are you kidding me? What if it's something evil? What if it's something that's going to affect our kids?"

"It hasn't yet." Jason reasoned. "They've been fine. We've all been fine."

"I haven't," Piper muttered. "I haven't been fine."

Jason looked his wife in the eyes. "You really think it was the thing that made you throw up?"

She nodded.

Jason closed his old binder as he felt the weight of stress settle into his chest. "I can call my mom over and she can see exactly what's going on here."

Piper leaned over the table to kiss the top of his head. "Thank you, Jason. Thank you."

Her husband did nothing more than give her a tired smile. "Seems I'm going to be fighting the paranormal all my life."

"I'll be helping you from now on." she pulled away. "We handled Nico and Will. We can handle this. I know we can."

"We'll see."


	6. Chapter 5

The night was full of nightmares.

Piper first awoke from her own, her breathing heavy as she looked around to ground herself into reality. Sweat covered her skin, stuck to the blankets that covered her and Jason. That nightmare wouldn't ever get out of her head.

"Jason..." she shook her husband awake. "Jason, wake up."

"Hm?" he cracked an eye open to look at her. "What's wrong?"

Piper felt like a child but snuggled into him anyway, wrapping her legs around him just as her arms. "I had a nightmare...it was bad...I'm sorry."

"What was it about?" he leaned against her in a haze of sleep.

"You killing yourself," she whispered. "Just like Will did."

Jason fully opened his eyes to look at his wife in the eyes. "Pipes...I'm not going to kill myself."

"I know."

"Was that all there was?"

"Yeah..."

He wrapped his arms around her. "Then don't worry and calm down. It wasn't anything that will come true."

"But..." her voice died as she remembered it again, remembered how his face looked without life. "I...I..."

"Mom?" the fear died away as she heard Katie knock on the old door. "Can I come in?"

"Yeah, come in." Jason sat up with a yawn of defeat. "What's wrong, now?"

Katie peeked her head into the doorway, her glasses resting on the bridge of her nose in a sloppy way of seeing. Without those glasses or her contacts, she might as well be legally blind. "I had a nightmare...can I lay in here?"

Jason and Piper exchanged a look before Piper reached for her daughter. "Yeah, come on."

Katie yawned as she laid beside her mother, pulling the blankets over herself. "Does dad work in the morning?"

"Yeah, so we've got to get back to sleep." Piper wrapped an arm around her. "What was your nightmare about?"

"Nico..." Katie choked out the old name. "I didn't even remember him until the dream. I saw him...I saw him in the kitchen...and I saw him in the basement...and I saw him as this shadow figure..."

Jason looked down at them, still sitting up on the large bed. "Katie..."

"That isn't good." Piper finished. "That isn't good at all."

Katie shrugged helplessly as she buried herself in her mother.

"My mom's coming tomorrow," Jason reassured Piper. "So let's get through the night. It'll all be okay in the morning. I promise you. She's helped us before and she can help us again."

Katie looked at her father in confusion but before she could ask her questions, Maddie came in the open door with her hands pulling at her old nightgown. "Mom? Dad? Can I lay in here tonight?"

"Nightmare?" Jason asked.

Maddie nodded.

"About Nico?"

Maddie paled dramatically but nodded again. "Yeah..."

"Get Nikki and join the party."


	7. Chapter 6

Jason's mother didn't step foot out of the car. She stayed with her old hands clenching her seatbelt, her blue eyes wide as she stared up at that old house for the first time in years.

"Mom?" Jason leaned next to the car to look into the open window. "Are you coming in?"

She shook her head, the streaks of white in her hair having become more prominent. "Jason...you never should have bought this house. All it's done has caused you trouble."

"I know."

"You should move." she looked down at her lap. "You should take your family somewhere else, Jason. Get out of here while you still can."

"Mom, just tell me what's wrong." Jason glanced over at his sister who was in the passenger's seat, her eyes glued to her phone as her nimble fingers flew over the screen. "What's here? Is it Nico like Reyna said?"

Beryl shook her old head. "No, no... It's not him."

"Then who is it?" Jason questioned.

"What is it?" she corrected. "And that...is a hard question."

"Demon?"

She nodded. "Most probably. Get your family out of that house, Jason. Before it attaches to them."

Jason looked up at the mansion he had claimed as home over the years, the place where he had raised his kids. "How'd it get here? Did something happen? Was it me?"

Beryl reached through the open window to grasp her son's hand. "Jason... Now's not the time to worry about that. It was deliberately brought in. If you had done it, you would have known... You need blessings. You need a priest. I can't help you with this one."

"And why not?" he demanded.

"Reyna won't let her in the house." Thalia finally spoke up, shooting her brother a soft glare. "She's turning-"

"I know my mother's age, Thalia." Jason scowled. "Are you calling her old?"

"I'm calling her fragile." Thalia corrected. "Go get someone else to help you."

"Thalia." Beryl placed a hand on her daughter's arm. "That's enough. Now...I'll help him find a priest but I'm not going in that house. That means we need to find a hotel nearby."

Thalia looked to Jason. "Is there one in town?"

"I can call down there and have it paid for." Jason stepped back from the car. "I have to go talk to Piper... You two can go get going. If things go bad I might take my family over there, too."

Thalia saluted him before driving off, the car working its way down that long driveway. The trees soon covered it from sight, leaving Jason standing in the lawn wondering how exactly he would tell Piper that they weren't safe in their own house.


	8. Chapter 7

"Where are the girls?" Jason asked as he came into the kitchen, Piper at her laptop at the island. "Upstairs?"

Piper nodded. "Maddie's in the basement. Other two are in their rooms."

"We've got to talk." Jason leaned over her shoulder to look at the laptop's screen. "What are you doing?"

"Trying something new." Piper looked up at him. "Why?"

Jason's eyes scanned over the screen. "Horror writing? You gonna post that somewhere?"

"I'm not that good." Piper tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "I just thought that I have so much experience by this point..."

"That's true." Jason ran his fingers through her hair, keeping it back from her face for her. "We...we need to talk. I just went out there to talk to my mom..."

"What'd she say about it? Did she feel anything?"

"Uh...yeah..." Jason cleared his throat. "There's a reason Reyna told her to stay away. And she still is. Thalia went to take her to town to get into a hotel. I called ahead to pay for it."

Piper frowned. "We have so much room here. They don't need to stay in a hotel. Just because you don't get along with them easily doesn't mean-"

"She refused to get out of the car, Pipes," Jason admitted. "She didn't step foot out of that car. She was scared of this place."

Piper looked away from the screen to stare at him. "What did she feel, Jason?

He told her the truth, the full truth, but he wasn't proud of it. He wanted to hide it away, take care of it secretly. But Piper had the right to know just as he did.

So he told her.


	9. Chapter 8

Jason watched from the window as Piper got the kids into the car, his eyes as sad as his heart as he met eye contact with his wife. He'd see them again soon enough, but nothing could stop the feeling of disappointment as they both agreed that their house wasn't fit for their children.

As soon as the car disappeared from sight, Jason felt a wisp of cold air settle into his bones.

"Jason." Will's voice caused him to turn to the old ghost. "We need to talk."

Jason's eyes met Will's in a sudden realization. "Fuck."

Will rubbed at his bruised neck as he looked Jason over. "Fuck pretty much explains this situation."

"What happened?" Jason asked, glancing around them. "What's in my house?"

Will put a hand out to him. "I'll show you. Follow me."

Jason did, and though he had a possibility of what was happening, he never expected to see what Will ended up showing him.

The descended the basement steps as if they were any other idiot in a horror movie. The wood creaked beneath Jason's weight, the light flickered as they drew near. Jason had never liked the basement.

They got to the bottom of the steps in silence. He could see the two couches he had put down there, the TV, the rug on the cold floor. He had set it up as a place for the girls to have friends over, as a place they could get away to, but nothing about the room had ever welcomed anyone.

The fierce cold chilled him to his bones.

"What's down here?" he asked. "Will, what is it?"

Will walked further into the room, his hand never stopping its constant rubbing at his neck. "Come move the rug."

Jason moved it to find a pentagram as red as the rug drawn on the concrete floor. It was sloppy, made in marker, but it was there. The cold got ten times worse.

"Wil...who...?"

"Your daughters." Will looked down at the pentagram in distaste. "Maddie and Nikki, if I remember correctly. They did this. It brought him in."

Jason froze. "Who's 'him'?"

Will made a pained expression. "There's a reason Nico didn't come. There's a reason you and your kids are having so many nightmares."

"My mom said a demon," Jason whispered. "Is it true?"

"He might as well be." Will grabbed Jason's shoulders. "Listen to me. Get a priest, seal off the portal this pentagram created. You have to before it's too late."

"Why? What will happen then?" Jason's eyes widened as Will disappeared into thin air. "Will! Wait! Come back!"

Jason never saw that man again.


	10. Chapter 9

Piper finally stepped into that hotel bathroom to take a shower, Katie having agreed to keep an eye on her younger siblings. Most of them were glued to an electronic, anyways, the Wifi signal ten times stronger here at the hotel than back at the house. Some Youtuber's voices drifted in, filling the air with a cheerful attitude.

But she still couldn't find it in herself to relax.

Just before she went to undress, a cold chill settled into her bones. She turned just in time to see Nico appear in the corner, his dark eyes even sadder than usual.

"Nico..." she let her arms fall to her sides. "What is it? What's wrong? Is Jason okay?"

"Will's with him." he sat on the sink, his feet dangling in the open air. "They're trying to figure it out."

"Is it really a demon?" she asked.

Nico shrugged. "He could be by this point. But I'd just call him an evil spirit." He frowned. "He's always been evil, up until the day he died."

She looked him over with steady eyes. "Your father, isn't it?"

"Yeah..."

"Can you get rid of him?"

Nico shrugged again. "Don't know. They're gonna try. Will's with Jason, now. If he gets a priest then we've got a good shot. But definitely keep your kids here until it's over."

"Will do." she started her shower, letting the warm water heat the air. "Nico?"

"Yeah?"

"Did you go somewhere good? Or do you regret moving on?" she looked down to hide the tears forming in her eyes. "I...I was scared we pressured you into something bad. I've been scared..."

"Hey..." Nico hopped off the sink and moved to her before hugging her close to him. "Don't feel bad. You were like a mother to me when I was in that house. And you helped me move on to something amazing. You did good. So stop worrying."

"It's amazing?" she sniffled as she laid her head on his shoulder.

"Yeah, it really is." he rubbed her back in hopes to comfort her, though he didn't have much experience. "It's amazing up there. The pain is gone, the fear is gone. It's just me and Will in paradise."

Piper felt herself smile despite the circumstances she was in. "That's good...that's amazing... I'm so happy for you."

"It wouldn't be this way without you." he felt himself also smile. "So, thank you."

"No problem."


	11. Chapter 10

All spirits move on eventually. Some go to that place in the sky. Others go down below, forever in flames. Which will you go to?

Jason eyed the priest, the man who "lived for God". Would that man go up above? Jason wasn't sure if the God full of love was proud of everything the man had done.

They needed new priests, new bishops. They needed guides instead of leaders. That was what God had intended, after all.

What was good? Where would Jason go when he died?

He watched this priest go about the house, watched him bless each room. The holy water fizzled and sparked whenever it hit the old wood. If it could purify, they needed it on themselves as much as the house needed it on its floors.

The wind blew forever strong. It stung, it hurt. It tried to keep them from that basement.

But on the side of good for at least this task, t hey made it through with some effort.

The red rug bad been blown against the wall, a couch had toppled over. Jason could just imagine the pain his mother must be in, her fragile form outside the house. She was burying crucifixes around the property, putting one at each corner. They couldn't let this spirit harm anyone else.

"The power of Christ," he called upon that name. Would it help against something that was Jason's own fault? His own daughters had brought that thing in of their own free will. Were they sorry? Could you forgive someone that didn't want to be forgiven?

Holy water was splattered like blood at a murder, the wood sounded like bacon in a pan. The pentagram was covered in it.

They painted a cross over that pentagram, said some more prayers.

The wind stopped, the last crucifix was buried.

The demons were once again home in Hell.

Would they be missed? Some might, but they were better off gone. They didn't belong in the world of the living. Not anymore.

Maybe it was finally over. And when Jason felt that way, he collapsed onto a couch as the thoughts shook his brain. He had scratched the surface of the paranormal, had seen more than those who looked for it.

And he was damn well happy he was free.


End file.
